It is 1900
in Paris and the "city of light" is at its
most glittering. The "long depression" of the late 19th century is
over, the horrors of the Great War are yet to come and la belle époque – as it
would come to be known – is in full swing.

Fauré, Saint Saëns, Debussy and Ravel are making music;
Rodin is working on The Thinker. Renoir, Monet, Cézanne, Pissarro and Degas are
busy painting scenes depicting everyday life in the city; Pablo Picasso,
recently arrived from Spain, is about to embark on his Blue Period.

By day, the Dreyfus affair still divides France and throws
up new political movements. By night, the cabarets of Pigalle entertain
absinthe drinkers and card players and Sarah Bernhardt captures hearts in the
short "talking movie" Le Duel d'Hamlet.

Emile Zola is writing Travail (published the following year
when his compatriot, Sully Prudhomme, was to win the first Nobel prize for
literature) but has turned his hand to photographing the Universal Exhibition,
the event that will capture the spirit of the new century and France's idea of
itself as the cultural, innovative and inspiring centre of the new world. It is
a period of peace and prosperity; France is confident, optimistic and looking
outward on a sizeable empire (second only to Britain's).

This is still the city many foreigners imagine when they
think of Paris. But it is a far cry from Paris 2014. The "temporary"
Eiffel Tower, a relative novelty in 1900, may still be standing. There is peace
and a certain prosperity in the Haussmann boulevards of chic arrondissements
with their designer shops and Michelin-starred restaurants. But France is
morose, inward looking, pessimistic by nature, unsure of itself and so lacking
in confidence that even a teasing, if unflattering, photograph of its president
on the front page of the Guardian can cause a national trauma and accusations
of "le French bashing".

Enter Christophe Leribault, 49, the energetic new director
of the Petit Palais and the man behind a new exhibition that will take the
French capital back to its glorious past. Who? Where? Leribault is not a
household name, even in France, and Le Petit Palais, officially the Paris
Museum of Fine Arts, is only marginally so.

The museum, a stunning edifice built on the right bank of
the Seine in 1900, is, as its name would suggest, overshadowed by its big
sister next door, Le Grand Palais. Leribault, described by colleagues as
looking like an "eternal adolescent", arrived at Le Petit Palais a
year ago and decided that the very select and specific exhibitions it had
organised until then were not going to put it on the tourist map, despite its
location yards from the Champs Elysées.

The Paris 1900 exhibition, which will run from 2 April to 17
August, is the culmination of Leribault's efforts to get the museum noticed at
home and abroad. This week he will travel to London to meet journalists to
"create a buzz" around the event.

Leaping up from his desk to delve among the piles of
catalogues in his office, Leribault hopes he will still have time to visit the
Tate, the National Gallery and buy some art books during his cross-Channel day
trip.

Paris 1900 will feature 600 exhibits as eclectic as la belle
époque itself. There are, of course, the paintings, but also clothes, posters,
photographs, films, furniture, jewellery, sculptures and even restaurant menus
from the era.

It also promises "scientific and technical innovations,
cultural effervescence and Parisian elegance".

The exhibition is arranged around the theme of the Universal
Exhibition, entitled Paris, Window on the World.

Leribault admits that it has become a mythical era, but
adds: "Paris is still living off that image. If you go to Japan or China,
that is the picture people have of the city."

He added: "There was an atmosphere of optimism and life
being one big party at the time. Of course, nobody imagined what would happen
afterwards with the outbreak of the first world war. If they thought war would
happen, they imagined it would be over quickly.

"French gastronomy was becoming more widely known and
Paris was showing not just its cultural and inventive side, but its festive
side. There was opera, theatre, circuses and Paris by night, including the
maisons closes [brothels] and fashion.

"Paris was one great party. There was a spirit of
confidence, of joie de vivre, with so many things going on at the same time.
Even the future king of England came to Paris to enjoy himself. It was the
capital of everything. It was one big party with elements of the funfair about
it," Leribault adds.

Leribault is coming to London not just to sell the
exhibition, but also Le Petit Palais itself, situated on Winston Churchill
Avenue and long overlooked as a museum despite a major renovation seven years
ago.

The Beaux Arts style building, designed by Charles Girault,
was intended to be a temporary structure, like the Eiffel Tower, but won over
Paris residents who refused to let it be torn down.

It has been nicknamed a "mini-Louvre" but without
the crowds and the school groups, and with the bonus of free entry to the
permanent exhibition, as well as a peaceful cafe and a beautiful garden.
Leribault says that the new exhibition will remind Parisians, and foreign
visitors, of what was, perhaps, one of the city's finest hours.

"La belle époque was very fluid artistically; there
were lots of different movements and excesses. People were saying, 'we don't
know where we are going but lots of things are happening and we are going to
have pleasure and fun. We may even mock ourselves, that's how fun it is.'

"Of course, everything collapsed 14 years later with
the outbreak of war. But in 1900 nobody had any idea of what was going to
happen. In that sense it's a fascinating period."

He added: "And if the myth of la belle époque has
endured until now, it's not just because of the contrast with the horror of the
Great War that came after it, but because it is founded on a real cultural
abundance."

The birth of the first International Exhibition in 1855 was
fueled by a desire to re-establish pride and faith in each nation after a
period of war. The succession of exhibitions followed in the same pattern; the
regeneration of nationality after war. Eight years before the launch of the
1900 Paris Exposition Universelle the Republic of France announced the
exhibition to be one which welcomed and celebrated the coming of a new century.
Countries from around the world were invited by France to showcase their
achievements and lifestyles; the Exposition Universelle was a uniting and
learning experience. It presented the opportunity for foreigners to realize the
similarities between nations as well as the unique differences. New cultures
were experienced and an overall better understanding of the values each country
had to offer was gained. The learning atmosphere aided in the attempts to
increase cultural tolerance, necessary after a period of war. The early
announcement and the massively positive response disenchanted the interest that
had been circling around the first German International Exposition. The support
for the exhibition was widespread, countries immediately began to plan their
exhibits, but despite the enthusiasm the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle was
not a financial success as only two thirds of the expected public was in
attendance. It is suspected that the Exposition Universelle did not do as
financially well as expected because the general public did not have the funds
to participate in the fair.